And the Woman Clothed In Sun
"...And the Woman Clothed in Sun" is the tenth episode of Season 3. It aired on August 8, 2015. Plot Carvings symbolizing the Great Red Dragon, retrieved from crime scenes, help Will Graham and the FBI shed light on Francis Dolarhyde's disturbing psychology. Meanwhile, Dolarhyde finds ways to communicate directly with Hannibal Lecter regarding his "becoming." Will begins to feel his bond with Hannibal growing uncomfortably stronger, and seeks out Bedelia Du Maurier, the only other person who fully understands the complexities of such a relationship. Synopsis Extras * Bryan Fuller said on the audio commentary and on Twitter that Bedelia’s dialogue about the wounded bird was inspired by a quote from Jodie Foster, from an interview in the LA Times on 12/11/94: “Look, it's terrible, I know, but (weakness) really, really bugs me, to the point that if there is a wounded bird on the sidewalk, I look at it and I go ‘I think I'll just kick it.’” * Richard Armitage went to the Brooklyn Museum and was left alone with the Blake painting, as part of his preparation for playing Francis Dolarhyde. When it came time to shoot the scene, the painting was printed on rice paper for Armitage to eat, but it was not the correct size and the rice paper did not look like real paper onscreen. Finally, Armitage decided to eat a version printed on regular paper, and this was the take used in the episode. (Similarly, actor Ralph Fiennes refused a “candy paper” version of the painting when shooting the 2002 film version, and also insisted on eating real paper.) * The episode initially had another act, but ran long. The additional material was moved to the beginning of the following episode. Book to Show * This episode continues the show’s adaptation of the novel Red Dragon, adapting material from Chapters 8, 11, 13, 35, and 41. * This episode introduces the characters Dr. Hassler and Paula Harper from the novel Red Dragon (the former is unnamed onscreen), and also references Byron Metcalf from the same book. * The episode takes its title from the William Blake painting The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun, the painting Dolarhyde eats in this episode. Although Thomas Harris throughout the novel Red Dragon refers to The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun as the painting that inspired Dolarhyde, the painting he describes is ...in Sun, including the Dragon’s tail being coiled around the Woman, the Dragon's face not being visible, as well as the painting being housed at the Brooklyn Museum. * Based on his license plate, Dolarhyde seems to live in NY State, as opposed to the book, where he lives north of St. Charles, MO. As with other location changes, this was likely done to fit the snowy Toronto filming location. * The novel character Byron Metcalf, Edward Jacobi’s estate attorney, is repurposed as Hannibal’s lawyer. The literary Metcalf did have experience in criminal law, having served as an assistant district attorney for four years. (The caller identification adds an ‘e’ to the end of Metcalf’s last name; when Hannibal is given the phone to speak to his lawyer later in the episode, the welcome message misstates the first name as “Brian.”) * The phone call from the end of the prior episode replays from Dolarhyde’s perspective, with additional dialogue. As with the dialogue heard in the prior episode, the call largely comes from the letter Dolarhyde sends Lecter on toilet paper in Chapter 13 of the book (including referring to himself as an “avid fan,” which is how he signs the letter). Some dialogue also comes from narration in Chapter 11, as Dolarhyde writes the letter: Dolarhyde saying the picture of Hannibal that Lounds used is not good, Hannibal’s reference to Dolarhyde’s speech being “bent and pruned,” the dialogue about John the Baptist and 666 (in the book, Dolarhyde curiously imagines sitting “on Hannibal as the Dragon sat on 666,” changed to sitting before him on the show), and Dolarhyde’s wish to see Hannibal meld with the strength of the Dragon. Left out of the show is Dolarhyde’s offer to send “something wet” to Hannibal. In the book, Dolarhyde does not reveal his alter-ego as the “Great Red Dragon” to Hannibal. * Hannibal’s line, “Did he who made the lamb make thee?” is from William Blake’s poem “The Tyger,” from the collection Songs of Experience. A quote from a different poem from the same collection, “A Divine Image,” appears as an epigraph at the beginning of the novel Red Dragon. * Bedelia’s description of her imprisonment, up to the reference to a needle, comes from narration in the novel Hannibal describing Clarice’s imprisonment by Hannibal. * The tiger scene faithfully adapts material from Chapter 35 of Red Dragon. The book makes clear that Dolarhyde learned about the tiger’s surgery on the news, and got in to see it by calling a favor with the zoo director, to whom Gateway had provided infrared film for shooting the nocturnal animals. His decision to show Reba the tiger is out of a desire to “share with her a little, in a way she could survive.” Dropped dialogue from the book includes Reba mentioning that the closest she came to seeing a tiger was a puma when she was a child, Reba’s exclamation “Hell fuzzy yes,” and the dentist Dr. Hassler rather theatrically showing Reba a gold tooth he made to replace the one the tiger snapped off when someone stuck a garden spade into the cage. In the book, the zoo director Dr. Warfield describes the tiger for Reba; his character is eliminated from the show, and some of his dialogue is given to Dolarhyde in the episode. * The sequence of Reba at Dolarhyde’s house faithfully adapts material from Chapter 35. Dolarhyde putting on Debussy, and Reba’s martini-preparation ritual come from descriptions in the book (although in the book Dolarhyde does not drink alcohol, and it is specified that they had bought gin and vermouth on the way home specifically so Reba could have a martini). In the book, Dolarhyde watches film of his next prospective victims, the Shermans, as Reba fellates him, and he reaches climax before carrying Reba off for a second round in the bedroom (Fuller said there was footage shot for the show that made it clear that Dolarhyde ejaculated, but NBC forced the scene to be trimmed to eliminate this). Dolarhyde feeling Reba’s heart to make sure she is alive is a detail from the book. * During the sex scene, Reba can be heard saying her book line, "My God, man. That's so sweet." Dolarhyde seeing Reba as the Woman Clothed in Sun while having sex, and shedding a tear, are inventions of the show. * Dolarhyde again feeling Reba’s heart as she sleeps and placing her hand on his face are details from Chapter 35 of the book. The imagery in Dolarhyde’s dream also comes from this Chapter: “Baroque pearls flying through the friendly dark. A Very pistol he had fired at the moon.” The show eliminates a firework he had seen in Hong Kong called “The Dragon Sows His Pearls,” and instead adds the falling teeth. Dolarhyde’s panicked search for Reba on the morning after comes from Chapter 35 as well. In the book, Dolarhyde is experiencing a “twoness” with the Dragon since placing his hand on Reba’s heart, and the Dragon begins speaking to him at this point. In the book, Reba is outside in the yard rather than in the living room, and she specifies that she has to leave because her sister is picking her up for lunch. * Dolarhyde's stocking mask, pulled up to the nose, briefly makes its show debut in his dream. * The book has dialogue between Dolarhyde and the Dragon (portrayed in all caps) beginning at this point in the story. While Dolarhyde mentions in "...and the Beast from the Sea" that the Dragon does indeed begin speaking to him, the show (as with the prior film adaptations) does not portray this onscreen. * Like both prior film adaptations, the show skips an incident wherein Dolarhyde and Reba stop for gas, and Dolarhyde catches the gas station attendant looking up Reba’s dress; he shoves the attendant and puts the spout of an oil can down his pants. (Dolarhyde later comes back and kills the attendant when he needs a corpse to pose as his own, an event which the show faithfully references in "The Wrath of the Lamb," without the corresponding backstory.) * Hannibal’s phone call to Chilton’s office is adapted from Chapter 8 of the book, where he calls Dr. Bloom’s office (reflecting the show's reversal of roles between Chilton and Bloom at this point in reference to the book). In the book, he simply dials the number, with Chilton, in an uncharacteristic lapse in security, apparently trusting on an honor system that Hannibal is calling his lawyer. The trick Hannibal performs in the show with a stick of foil-wrapped chewing gum is a tribute to the adaptation of this scene in the 1986 film Manhunter (the show also adapts Hannibal’s movie line, “Operator, I don’t have the use of my arms”). All the other dialogue is taken almost exactly from the book; in the book, he claims Dr. Bloom had wanted him to send Overholser’s The Psychiatrist and the Law. Notably, in the book, Hannibal makes this call right after Will first visits him and before Dolarhyde ever contacts him. His motive in getting Will’s address at this stage in the novel is apparently merely to send Will a colostomy bag “for old times’ sake.” * Hannibal sending Bedelia cards on her birthday calls to mind him doing the same to his former paramour, Mrs. Rachel Rosencranz née DuBerry, in the novel Hannibal after his incarceration. * Hannibal impliedly programming Neil Frank to swallow his tongue, first hinted at in “Relevés,” refers to him persuading Multiple Miggs to swallow his tongue from the next cell in The Silence of the Lambs. * As with both prior film adaptations of Red Dragon, the show eliminates the character of Niles Jacobi, Edward Jacobi’s estranged (and criminal delinquent) son from an earlier marriage, who is attending community college and whom Will questions in a bar called the Hateful Snake. (An outline on a whiteboard in the writers' room, seen in the DVD/Blu Ray feature Getting the Old Scent Again, reveals that there was at one point a plan to adapt this sequence, with the "rage and hate" resulting from Niles's stepparent issues and feelings of rejection resonating with Will in his own new role as a stepfather, and impliedly also giving him some insight into Dolarhyde.) * Will and Hannibal’s dialogue about the “Red Dragon” symbol comes from narration in the book. Will’s description of how it was carved comes from Chapter 10, whereas the description of the symbol’s meaning comes from a report from Asian Studies at Langley in Chapter 12. * Hannibal’s description of the Blake painting comes from narration describing the painting when Dolarhyde sees it in the Brooklyn Museum, and his line about the painting’s nightmarish charge of demonic sexuality is adapted from the Time magazine critic’s appraisal quoted in the novel. * Will’s line that something in the families drew the killer and spoke to him comes from Will’s thoughts in the novel, as does the dialogue about believing there is a common factor, and Hannibal’s line about Will entering more houses to see what the Tooth Fairy/Dragon has left for him. * The dialogue about how the Jacobis were the first to help the Tooth Fairy, and better than anything he knew “until the Leedeses,” comes from Dolarhyde’s thoughts in the book, as does the reference to more families to come as he grows in strength and Glory. * Hannibal’s reference to watching the world through the Dragon’s red haze comes from narration in the book as Will tries to replicate the killer’s thought process. * The show eliminates a lengthy storyline involving the note from Dolarhyde to Lecter written on toilet paper being discovered in Hannibal’s cell (with a section missing), and the FBI quickly confiscating the note and running a variety of tests while Hannibal believes his cell is being cleaned, and then locating and trying to decipher Lecter’s reply in the Tattler’s ads section. * The show eliminates material portraying Dolarhyde’s internal struggle, including the Dragon nearly forcing him to remove his penis using the teeth, and Dolarhyde contemplating hanging himself in a motel to save Reba, before settling on his plan to eat the painting. * The Brooklyn Museum sequence adapts Chapter 41 of the book. The show eliminates Dolarhyde doing recon at the Museum the day before; wearing a disguise consisting of a wig and mustache; and bringing a guitar case containing props (including a tennis racket and grocery bag) which he uses in his escape after stripping down to workout clothes. Dolarhyde’s false name in the book, Paul Crane, becomes John Crane. The show eliminates a passage where Dolarhyde freezes upon seeing a George Washington portrait that looks like Grandmother. In the book, the Dragon begins to speak through Dolarhyde just before he clubs Ms. Harper, and there is another Museum employee that Dolarhyde also knocks out. Will seeing Dolarhyde at the Museum is an invention of the show. * The deleted scene from this episode faithfully adapts material from Chapter 35, as Dolarhyde and Reba return home from the zoo outing. Cut Scenes * The script calls for a surreal effect in the establishing shot of Hannibal’s office, with Dolarhyde’s van entering the time-lapse shot, the van moving at normal speed as the clouds race by overhead. * The DVD and Blu Ray feature a deleted scene of Dolarhyde and Reba entering Dolarhyde’s house after the zoo outing. * The DVD and Blu Ray deleted scenes reel features an alternate version of the Dolarhyde/Reba sex scene, made up of shots that were too suggestive for the network cut. * The DVD/Blu Ray feature Getting the Old Scent Again features footage of the writers' room where a whiteboard containing an outline for an early version of Episode 309 can be seen (best seen at 1:30:05). This early plan for the show seemingly sticks to the novel's sequencing more closely, holding off Reba's debut and thus getting to events which ultimately ended up in this episode and the following one more quickly. While this version of the story still depicts Dolarhyde breaking into Hannibal's old office and engaging in a "fantasy therapy" sequence, in this iteration he writes a letter (as in the book), apparently imagining Hannibal's responses as part of his writing process, and ultimately leaving the letter in the office. Bedelia then finds the letter, getting her more directly involved in the plot than she ended up being (it is not clear how or why Bedelia knew to go to Hannibal's office). She turns the letter in to the FBI, who express some skepticism. Bedelia later visits Hannibal (their shared mind palace is the balcony in Florence). She tells Hannibal she wants to be neutral; she gave the letter to the FBI, and she is telling Hannibal about it. When Will talks to Hannibal, Will "fails a 'test'" when he does not mention the letter. The FBI publishes their reply. Dolarhyde then calls Hannibal (posing as his lawyer, as on the finished show), and asks if that was his reply. Hannibal: "We have things to discuss..." This version of the show also would have included Will’s interview with Niles Jacobi at the Hateful Snake, with the "rage and hate" resulting from Niles's stepparent issues and feelings of rejection resonating with Will in his own new role as a stepfather, and impliedly also giving him some insight into Dolarhyde. Image gallery See other Navigational Category:Season 3 Episodes